 Yeah, the stage is set for the 2023 CG United Super 50 Cup Final, Lee Wood Island's Hurricanes made light work of Barbados trying to win semi-final 2 by 155 runs on Thursday at the Bryan Lara Cricket Academy in Taruba. That win, set up a meeting with 13-time champions Trinidad and Tobago Red Force. The Red Force beat Guyana Harpy Eagles on Wednesday to book their place in Saturday's showpiece. Joining us to preview the match is Cricket commentator Nikhil Utamchandani. Nikhil, welcome back to the Sportsmax zone. On Tuesday, I think it was, I dubbed you the Cricket Prediction Guru. And it turns out you are right again. The Hurricanes will play the Red Force in the Championship match. Congratulations! No, no, no, don't congratulate me at Ricardo. I'll take my physical price delivered to me depending on the result tomorrow. I'll expect it sometime next week. I know you have that FedEx Express shipping. Okay, you're welcome. So Hurricanes versus the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force for the Championship match on Saturday. Would you say the two best teams have gotten to the Championship game? I think most definitely. When you look at the two teams on paper in terms of the individual quality for me, it was the two standout teams in the tournament. And I already think the Leeward Islands, I mean look Trinidad and Tobago year after year have proved themselves to be a powerhouse in regional cricket. But when I looked at the Leeward Islands at the beginning of the tournament with the addition, remember, of Justin Graves and Oshane Thomas. Thomas is from Jamaica, Graves is from Barbados. They picked those two guys up in the franchise system. And I looked at those two additions in what they already had in Hamilton, in Cornwall, and then they also added Alzari Joseph who hasn't played for the last couple of seasons. I thought this was the best team of the tournament, but of course that was without any cricket being played. So to answer your question, I would say yes, these are the best two teams. And I think the reason that they're in this place is because they're specifically the best two bowling lineups. When you look at the versatility that each one possess, obviously Trinidad and Tobago with the amount of spin that they have in these conditions will always be a handful. And Leewards have got spin of their own with Hayden Wilson, Daniel Doran bowling so well. But when you have Alzari Joseph and you add him to the mix, I think it makes it such a mouthwatering affair come tomorrow. A close through we get victory for the Red Force when they admit it at the preliminary stage of the competition. How do you think that match and that result will impact how tomorrow's game is played out, if any at all? To be honest, Ricardo, I think it has a huge impact. And Alzari Joseph should be telling his team now that they should take a lot from that game because they lost the game, but they took it extremely close. And it was the only time in this tournament I can comfortably say the Red Force looked like they were put on the back foot. Now, yes, many can say the Red Force didn't have someone like Nicholas Foran, who we know on his day can change the game completely. But what they did have was Darren Bravo, who has scored 103-50s in this tournament. But Alzari Joseph, let's be honest, had him at sea and had the other top order at sea as well. 44 for four they were when these two teams met. And then let's talk about the other side of things. When Kyron Powell and Justin Graves walked out there, the Leewards were 110 without loss in 14 overs. And then I think based on some short selections and some things that they would like to rectify that I thought were in their own control, they got skilled out for just the 199. So I think when they look back on the game, they'll reflect on decisions that they could have possibly made better. And had they got 250, I believe they would have won the game because it took a really hurricane type effort from Yannick Carrier. I think it was 56 from 100 balls in that game to get them over the line. So based on that and the fact that the trend outside are certain and defeated, I think it's really hard to pick a winner. But Al-Zari and his men should be confident. Yeah, I took note of the fact that you said these teams have gotten to this stage largely on the quality of their bowling lineups. And it makes me want to look closely at the batting because I believe in situations like that know you're looking at the one or two batsmen who you think can change the game, especially in a championship match. I want to start by talking about Justin Graves because he's been superb in this tournament. One century, Justin Graves, one century, three half centuries and another quality knock in the semifinal as well. Talk to me about this 29 year old and what has been so different about this Super 50 tournament for him? I think if you look at Graves in the last calendar year, Ricardo, the main thing that stands out is versatility. Take you back to January of this year where he took 16 red ball first class tickets in five matches and batted at four and five for the Winred Islands Volcanoes. They opted to release him. He started a season batting at five and six. And then after they had some low scores at the top, they moved him up the order. What he's shown over his career, remember he opened the batting for the Westonese in 3-1 international against Ireland. It didn't work out for him. That was some I think two years ago in that series that the Westonese lost. But what he's shown is that he can do so many different things. And the way he's gone about things against the new ball against some really challenging bowling lineups as well. You look at what he scored against the Barbada Sprite, even he's got the half century against the spin attack of the Red Force as well in the tournament. He's got the hundred against the Volcanoes. The way that he has just structured his innings, it's been minimizing risk for a lot of the innings and being able to be very selective in terms of his boundary scoring options when he's been given with outside the All-Stump. And he's chosen the right moments. That for me has been the biggest standout. Now I think he's done a lot and enough to put himself in that conversation for the England series, also based on the fact that he can bowl a few overs of seam as well. But looking at tomorrow's final, what I want to see is if he doesn't get runs because in the last four games, he's gotten 50 or more. If he doesn't get runs, how does that batting lineup react? Because they've been susceptible to some big collapses. We saw against Trinidad that even yesterday when Graves got out, they lost three wickets for just 33 runs. So that will be a slight worry for them. But consistency that he's shown in this tournament has been unmatched. And we haven't already seen anything like it for a long time. Yeah, highest score of 121. He has scored 391 runs, seven matches, six innings. He's been knocked out twice. And he is the leading run scorer in the tournament. And if he is the man for the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, then the second leading run scorer, Darren Bravo, might be the man for the Red Force with the bat. Yeah, he will be. And again, they have other match winners like Puran, Keon Otley's batted well this season. But all the attention we put on Bravo. And if you observe that bar, but his pride game, teams believe that they can get Bravo out with short bowling. So in that pride game, they tried a barrage of short bowling to him. And to Bravo's credit, I think he was 26 from his first 20 deliveries. He actually was able to score boundaries against the pace bowling. However, Alzari, Joseph and Ocean Thomas are a different proposition. I can't wait to see one how Alzari tactically plans the innings to save his overs for Bravo, who he already dismissed early in this tournament and roughed him up with some short bowling and then went full and got him out and also Ocean Thomas. But if Bravo can weather that storm, he's shown us enough against spin with all bowling types, whether it's the off spin, the leg spin, the left arm spin, that he will believe he can cash in. And they've got so many left handers in there to maybe counter some like a Daniel Durham or a Hayden or Walsh, who mind you was bowling some ready, you got googly. So when you sit down, when you think about these various matchups, it really is captivating, it's exciting and they can't wait for the final. Nikhil, I wanted to get a quick comment from you on Alzari Joseph's captaincy because captaincy is new to him. He replaced Jamar Hamilton as the Leeward's Hurricanes captain for this tournament, but he has done really, really well and you are there covering the match. Can you talk to us about his strong points as a team leader? Well, to be honest, Lance, and I don't know how many people were watching that presentation last night, but I specifically asked Shea Hope, who's the West Indies one international captain, what he thought of his opposite in Alzari Joseph, and even Shea, he said it on air and even off here told me he's been very impressed watching Alzari over the couple of times that the teams met this season. And what I would say from Alzari, I think he's been really aggressive and maybe sometimes a touch too aggressive. But I rather captains regionally on that side because you hear guys like Hope, guys like head coach Darren Sammy talk about the need to play more aggressive cricket, especially in times when nothing is happening. So think to the middle overs between overs 11 and 40. The West Indies have struggled to get tickets. The West Indies have struggled to score at a high rate when you compare it to the South Africa, the India, the Australia's and others. So to see the way he's gone about things, I'll give you some examples at times when you're allowed four feet outside the circle, Alzari's been happy to just have two and really attack. Now, yes, he's had to sacrifice boundaries, but having guys catching under the back has created other opportunities for him. The deployment of Heda Walsh, who sometimes has gone into bat as early as the 20th over. Others would think, you know, Heda Walsh is someone who can score for you at the back end, but he's believed in Walsh and it's paid off. Walsh has got two half centuries in the tournament and his average over 50. So small things like that for me say a lot about Alzari's captaincy. And look, I think, you know, I always thought he was an introverted personality, but watching him on the field and the way he's operated this season, you know, he could definitely have a future in leadership in some cricket at some stage in his career. Yeah, you know, I deliberately asked you that because I felt that way. I saw him in a pre-final interview today and he summed up the Leeward's performance in this to players playing their roles and playing positively, which is something he he suggested that he pushed on on his team that he wanted positive cricket from them. And I think this is a good sign from the young man. Yeah, and the thing is, Lance, last night after they won that game, put themselves in the final, you should see the guy before the presentation. He's not smiling at all. And I even cracked the joke and said, Alzari, you know, you can smell. He said job is not finished. And remember the great Kobe Bryant also had that quote. So I'm not saying that Alzari's Kobe, but what I am saying is he's very serious about winning this tournament. He's extremely passionate about Leeward's and regional cricket. And I think he's very hungry to come out hard against the Trinidadians who are undefeated, with a maybe a little chip on his shoulder against some of his current and former teammates. Yeah, we definitely look forward to it. Nikhil Utamchandani will be listening to you on commentary while we watch the exciting action of the Super 50 final. You've already called it. So no need to ask you again because you've already said Red Force and you made that clear pretty early in the piece you've been right about everything so far. Let's see how it goes on Saturday in Taruba. Yeah, no pressure, Ricardo. You know, I bought myself. I bought myself. Never any pressure money or a champion. We take a break. We'll be back with more on the Sportsmax Zone.